


Flingerlings

by spitecentral



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Also Starring Snape's Corpse, Aromantic Harry Potter, Aromantic Luna Lovegood, Gen, Minor Characters: Hagrid and Ginny, Not Epilogue Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 10:29:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14714351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spitecentral/pseuds/spitecentral
Summary: Aromantic Luna coming to terms with herself, and Harry moves right along with her.





	Flingerlings

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [wishie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wishie/pseuds/wishie) in the [GenAndAroPrompts](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/GenAndAroPrompts) collection. 



> Based on prompt by wishie! It took longer than I planned to fill, but there's a bonus aro!Harry! I'm not very happy with this story; I feel like it's unfocused and disjointed, but oh well, it could be way, way worse. Just as a warning, though: it's been approximately a gazillion years since I last read HP, so I might be getting things wrong.

When she was sixteen, Luna grabbed her net and headed out to the Forbidden Forest. It was twilight, and while there was still more than enough light to see by, the long shadows of the trees loomed over her as she sat down at the forest’s edge, waiting.

The sun slid further down the sky, and finally, when the shadows of the trees were swallowed up by the darkness, Luna sighed and headed back towards the castle. 

She repeated this process the next day, and the day afterwards. Her housemates looked at her weirdly, but they always did, so she wasn’t all that bothered. However, as the days passed and she didn’t even catch a glimpse of glowing wings, she felt herself get increasingly despondent. 

Finally, after a week of hunting by herself, she decided to ask for help.

“Hagrid, would you know where the best place to catch flingerlings is?” she asked, net in her hand.

Hagrid rubbed his head. “Flingerlings, ya say? Can’t say I ever heard of ‘em. Sorry.”

“Oh,” she replied, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. “Well, thank you anyway.”

“Yer welcome, an’ good luck.”

The shadows towered over her as she sat down next to the forest. Once again, she didn’t see a speck of colour among the black.

///

On the evening of the twenty-third day, Harry sat down next to her.

“What’re you doing?” he asked, gesturing to the net.

“Catching flingerlings.”

“Flingerlings?”

Luna pulled her net a little closer to her, fidgeting with its rope. “They’re magical creatures, a bit similar to butterflies, but their wings glow in a rainbow of colours. They give people their ability to love back.”

“Back?”

“Yes. Yelings steal it. They’re snake-like creatures with long tongues that crawl over you when you sleep, and they eat your love.”

Harry raised his eyebrows. “I haven’t seen or heard any snakes in the dorms, though.”

“Maybe they haven’t been in the Gryffindor tower,” Luna suggested.

Harry stood up, kicking a rock into the Forbidden Forest. “Maybe,” he said, but he didn’t look at her. “C’mon, it’s getting dark.”

Luna looked at the sun, barely visible above the horizon, and got up as well. “I guess so.”

///

From then on, Harry joined her, and their flingerling catching turned into hangouts quickly. It was hard not to talk when you were stuck outside the Forbidden Forest, waiting for something that might never appear.

“Does Ginny still have a crush on me?” Harry asked her one night.

“Why don’t you ask her?”

“Does she?”

Luna nodded, slowly. “Yes, I think so. But why?”

“I’m thinking about asking her out.”

“Why?”

Harry shrugged, uncomfortable. “It just seems like the thing to do.”

No flingerlings had appeared yet. 

///

Soon enough, however, they had other, more important things to worry about than yelings or love.

Two years later, the war was over, and they were burying corpses around the castle. Mostly, they were people with no family to return them to. Families like the Weasley’s wanted to bury their dead close to them, but even when all the bodies had been collected, there were still twenty in need of a grave. Luna volunteered to dig.

She was at her third grave when Harry grabbed a shovel and joined her. 

“Don’t you want to care for the living?” she asked. 

Harry shrugged, wringing his shovel tightly and staring resolutely at the ground. “I just needed a break.”

Digging graves hardly seemed like a ‘break’, but she had seen how people fought to get to the Boy Who Lived, so to him, it very well might have been. 

For a while, they worked in silence. It seemed inappropriate to talk. 

They finished the graves when the sun was high in the sky, and started pulling corpses into them. None of them would get a funeral. They didn’t have friends or family to attend.

The last corpse to lay to earth was Snape. His hair was as greasy as it had always been when he’d lived, but his face was even paler and his smell even fouler than normal. Even so, he looked uncharacteristically peaceful; his eyes had been closed, and his mouth was slack instead of pulled into a distasteful sneer or a smug grin. She almost missed it.

Harry had stood there, staring with a frown on his face, for a few minutes. Finally, Luna tapped him on the shoulder. 

“We need to move him,” she said, gently. 

Harry took a shuddering breath, and nodded. 

When they started piling dirt on top of Snape, Harry asked: “Remember when we were trying to catch flingerlings?”

Luna paused for a moment. “Yes.”

“Would it really be such a bad thing if we never did?”

She shrugged. “Well, we never caught one, and I think we turned out alright, so I guess not.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Harry threw dirt directly on Snape’s face, burying it. “I mean... would it really be such a bad thing if we never found someone to love?”

Her grip on the shovel went slack, and she just managed to steady it before it fell into the grave. “What do you mean?”

“Snape loved my mom.” 

Luna blinked, and stopped digging altogether, leaning forward on her shovel. “Really?”

Harry met her gaze briefly. “Yeah. He spent years chasing her, and even after she died, his patronus remained the same as hers.”

“Huh,” she looked down into the grave, where only a bit of greasy hair was still visible. “That’s... romantic.”

“He stepped over my father’s body to get to hers after she was murdered, and completely ignored me while I was in the crib right next to him.” Harry buried the last bit of hair. “If love means ignoring a crying, orphaned baby in favor of a dead body, then I don’t want it.”

When the grave was finished, Luna stepped back and looked at the gravestone, engraved simply with Snape’s name, date of birth, and date of death.

“I don’t think love makes you like that,” she finally said. “During the last year, I’ve realized that I love my friends and father more than I love anything else, but I would never prioritize their corpses over someone in need. I know they wouldn’t want me to.”

Harry turned to look at her, fists balled, jaw stiff. “Real love is deeper than that.”

Luna shrugged. “If enduring torture and risking death for your friends and family isn’t love, then I don’t know what is.”

“They say it’s deeper, though.”

“They also said that Voldemort couldn’t die, and yet, here we are.”

Harry ducked his head, letting his hair fall in front of his face, and as she saw his shoulders shake, she realized he was crying. 

She hugged him.

“I miss them so much,” he chocked into her hair, clinging to her dress. “I miss Remus and Fred and Tonks and Dobby and Hedwig and... and...”

“Me too,” she murmured, her face buried in his neck, the salt of tears in her mouth. “Me too.”

///

As always, the world kept turning. Harry tried to retire from the public eye (how successful he was at it depended on Rita Skeeter’s mood), and Luna travelled the world. They wrote each other.

_Found a new species of dragon, I think. It looks like a horntail, but its colourings are different and the bone structure in his wing is unique; I’ve never seen anything like it. I’d prefer to see if there are others like it before contacting the Ministry, though, just to make sure that it isn’t a mutation._

_Hermione’s campaign is finally gaining traction; if this keeps going, I imagine that she’ll have enough votes to win the election by January. Ron is proud of her, of course, and also asks you to send a picture of the ‘horntail’, just so Charlie can have a look at it. Ginny and I broke up, finally. Don’t worry, it was friendly; we all know it was a long time coming. We’re staying together for now - as in, living in the same house - both because Skeeter and the press have been stalking us for a while and because we like it._

_Sorry for the late answer - I’ve been really busy tracking the colony of new dragons. I have a partner helping me now: Rolf Scamander. Yes, that Scamander. He happened to be in the neighbourhood, and of course he jumped on the chance to study a new dragon species. We tracked the little one to an entire colony! I added some pictures, and I’m sure Charlie will love them. Will contact the Ministry soon. I’d say I’m sorry to hear about you and Ginny, but I’m not, you have been miserable. I hope this will make you both happier._

_Charlie wasn’t the only one excited about those pictures! Are their wings really glowing, or is that just the light? Anyway, you’re right, me and Ginny have been happier now that there’s no pressure to perform ‘romantic’ things; I finally feel like I can breathe, and it’s noticeable. According to Ginny, Ron, and well, everyone, I’ve been a lot less cranky. As for Ginny, she seems to be enjoying her newfound freedom as well. We’ve been laughing a lot more together in the past week than we did in months before._

_I’m glad to hear that! Have you decided whether you’re going to continue living together or not? I’m having some trouble in love myself; Rolf confessed that he likes me, and I had to turn him down. The tension is through the roof, but at least we have dragons to keep us occupied. One in particular seems to have taken a liking to me; it’s a runt rejected by the mother, and it’s been sneaking to our tent to steal our food. Rolf tries to scare it away, but I usually just give it healthy foods. I wouldn’t like to see it die. And yes, their wings glow in the dark!_

_Charlie advises you to scare it away like Rolf does, but you’re not going to do that, are you? Ginny and I are going to stay together; we enjoy the company, and with our nightmares, we’re not sure how well we’d do in an apartment on our own, anyway. Sucks about Rolf; hope he’s being decent about it, at least. And do you know if the sneaking dragon is a male or female? Do you have a name for their species yet?_

_Rolf has calmed down, and the tension isn’t so high anymore, so it’s alright. I’ve decided to name the species flingerling; when actual flingerlings are found the name will have to be changed, of course, but for now, it seems to fit. The sneaking dragon is a female. I caught her long enough today to check, but then she wouldn’t leave. Rolf was angry at first, but now that she’s been sleeping in my sleeping bag for the past three days, he’s just kind of amused. I’m coming home in three days to file an official report with the Ministry, and I hope I can wane her off me soon. I’m looking forward to seeing you! Give everyone my kisses!_

///

Luna landed in front of Ginny’s apartment on a broom, and with a baby dragon on her shoulders. Harry opened the door. 

“Really?” he asked, looking at the dragon.

“She followed me,” Luna insisted as Psyche gently nibbled her ear.

“And I’m sure you’re very sorry about that.”

Luna smiled sheepishly. “Not particularly, no. She’s a sweetheart.”

Harry doubled over and laughed. “Oh, just wait until Charlie hears.” 

“Wait until Charlie hears what?” Ginny called out from inside the house. 

“Luna brought a dragon!” Harry yelled back. 

“Luna brought a _what_.”

“Her name is Psyche and she’s very sweet!” Luna stepped over the doormat and into the hallway while Harry was still snickering. It was dark enough that Psyche’s wings lit up clearly, casting a spectrum of light over the walls.

“You should probably cast a lumos,” she suggested.

“And miss this light show?” Harry retorted, grin lit up by a rainbow. “Not a chance.”

///

Not long after, Luna left again. But she came back, years later, when she grew too old to keep travelling. Psyche was still with her. She lived on the countryside, alone on a hill, but with so many animals and so much books to write that she was never lonely. She enjoyed the sunlight and even the quiet, and loved to catch the last rays of the evening sun on Psyche’s back as she flew across the fields. She lived a peaceful, unbothered life.

Mostly unbothered.

Harry apparated into her room with a large _bang!_ and it was only with pure luck that she managed to keep from dropping her entire package of fish food into the aquarium. 

“Could you warn me, next time?”

“Sorry.” Harry didn’t look the slightest bit guilty. In fact, he seemed rather excited. “Have you seen this?”

He shoved a pamphlet under her nose, and she took it out of his hands. Leaning heavily on her cane, she skimmed through the words. “A pride parade?”

Harry nodded enthusiastically. “The Ministry has finally given the go ahead for a wizard pride parade!”

“That’s great, but why did you need to apparate into the middle of my living room to tell me that?”

“Read the back,” Harry said impatiently.

Luna turned the pamphlet over. The back was just full of terms and definitions, nothing special -

Oh. 

Oh!

“Aromantic!” 

Her giddy voice carried and Psyche tried to stick her nose inside the house to see what was going on, but of course, she was much too big. Luna hasted towards the window and rubbed her nose.

“Hear that, Psyche? I’m aromantic!”

“Right?” Harry appeared next to her, patting Psyche’s nose with equal enthusiasm. “It fits perfectly! I can’t believe we didn’t hear this earlier!”

Luna turned to him, and then to Psyche, with a wild grin on her face. “Alright, girl, we have some work to do.”

///

A month later, Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood flew high above the pride parade, with Psyche painted in the colours of the aro flag, casting light on the march below.


End file.
